Q&A with Bill Monaghan

It’s hard to believe the 2021 Optus WAFL Season is only four weeks away. We caught up with Senior Coach Bill Monaghan following the Sharks intraclub match last night and he updated us on the lead-up to our Round 1 clash against Peel Thunder.

Q 1 It’s you’re third pre-season at the helm of the Sharks, how are the players travelling and how do you compare this year’s preparations to previous?

It’s a completely different field! The first year was around correcting the way the players trained and way they prepared, which took a lot of time, effort and energy. We also had to get the right people into the club and change their attitudes.

We were flying along last year and then COVID-19 hit. We weren’t really sure what was going to happen and I think a lot of the players dropped the ball so any gains we made last pre-season, fell away pretty quickly.

This year we’ve added six high quality recruits. But probably and more importantly, we asked the senior players and those who are developing to lift their standards again and focus on their running times. The players have been really good and now we’re all excited and looking forward to the upcoming season.

Q 2 You had an intraclub match last night, how did it go and what do you take from these games?

Intraclub games are always a little difficult to assess. Some of the outcomes are probably not what they are on a normal day. Our ball movement was good, I thought the energy was good, we kicked really accurately – I think one team kicked 11.4 and the other 9.1, so there were a lot of positives. I think trying to get our recruits to blend with the existing players is something we’ve got to work hard to do.

We also decided to use some players in different positions, we brought in two or three guys who will come through the midfield so that adds a little bit of pressure. Then there’s guys who have taken their game to another level who will get more opportunities.

It probably showed that it’s going to be difficult to pick a side come round 1 and it’s even going to be difficult to pick a side next week against Subi.

There is going to be four or five guys who will be rewarded for their pre-season and a couple of our senior or more experience players might have to suit up a bit earlier, which is always the case but they’re not easy conversations to have.

Q 3 Who impressed in the intraclub match?

Jamie Meade and Cody Smith are going really well, they were probably the most impressive of the guys who haven’t played league footy.

Milan Murdock looks like he has taken his game to a new level, Cam Eardley was used across half-back to good effect, Hugh Dixon was doing a good job up forward.

The most exciting is probably English and Schoenfeld through the middle, Chalmers and Marsh spent some time forward and in the middle, and they were really impressive. Max Murphy ended up kicking three goals, he and Lachy Bailey were on opposite sides but both played really well in their positions, so there is a lot to look forward to.

Q 4 The Sharks face Subiaco, Perth and West Coast in the pre-season games, what’s the focus for these matches?

Again, we have to get the synergy between the new players and the existing players right. But what we haven’t done in the two years I’ve been here, is managed to get on the board early and as a result, our form early in the season wasn’t good. So, whilst winning isn’t everything in practice matches, we want to be really competitive, play a strong brand of footy and hopefully come away with a little bit of incentive and belief for the players.

Hopefully in these games we can win one or two but that does take a back seat to some of the other stuff. Improved presence around the ball, some better ball movement and just stay involved in the game for longer. We’ve made no secret that we’ve added some real running power and we asked the other players to increase their running power. Hopefully you’ll see four quarters of solid effort, which we haven’t been able to do and it’s probably costs us six or seven games that were winnable over the last two years.

Q 5 Has anyone surprised you this pre-season?

Not really, our expectation is fairly high and we’ve been able to assemble a squad where we think the majority of them can play league footy in the short term.

Surprise isn’t the word, there is probably a number of players or the majority of the squad who are meeting the higher standards we’ve set and that’s been the most pleasing part.

Join Bill’s team by signing up as a member for the 2021 season here.